HOFFICE: A self-organizing network for co-creating temporary workplaces
URL: hoffice.nu/
Organisation form: informal, self-organizing network
Country: Sweden
Domain: CoWorking; Space
Starting year:
Keywords: Workplace, Mobile work, Flexibility, Network Hospitality, Politics of Care
The self-organizing network Hoffice – a merger between the words home and office – brings together people who wish to co-create temporary workplaces. The Hoffice network was founded in Stockholm, Sweden, in the beginning of 2014, with the main intention to facilitate the collective use of private homes as shared offices. The Hoffice concept entails a co-working methodology, and a set of practices inherent in opening up one’s home as a temporary, shared workplace, with the help of existing social media platforms, particularly Facebook. Hoffice is an interesting example of the collaborative economy because it is a local initiative that relies on commonly available tools (such as Facebook) and volunteer efforts of its members who come together in a flexible manner to address a shared need for a workplace and a work community. Hoffice is also interesting in that it aspires to co-create an alternative social model that encourages trust, self-actualization, and openness. It does not have or seek mechanisms to make money. The network relies on its members’ joint efforts to improve their own and each other’s work lives, and participation is entirely voluntarily. The impact of Hoffice is primarily social – despite its informal nature, Hoffice already making change for its members as a grassroots approach to creating alternative ways of organizing nomadic work and navigating non-traditional employment arrangements.
Authors: Chiara Rossitto & Airi Lampinen, Department of Computer and Systems Sciences (DSV), Stockholm University, Stockholm, Sweden
Date: 28 May 2018
